Born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, Newton was a premature baby who was not expected to live. His father had died three months previous to the birth, and his mother remarried three years later, leaving Newton in the care of his grandparents.

Newton did not distinguish himself in school, and he was removed by his mother in the late 1650s to work on the family farm, but Newton proved a worse farmer than scholar. His uncle, however, encouraged the boy to go to Cambridge in 1660. Five years later Newton graduated, even though he had failed a scholarship exam in 1663 due to his lack of knowledge concerning geometry.

Newton returned to the farm shortly thereafter to escape the Bubonic plague, which at the time was decimating London. While at the farm in 1666, Newton saw an apple fall to the ground, and he began to ponder the force that was responsible...